See-Apple, week two

Are you ready for vacation post #2?  Not sure I am...I know I write too much, and I can't really help it.  That's why the idea of blogging scared me a tad from the get-go.  But here goes. :)

Saturday arrived again, which meant it was time for Daddy to head home.  I was already not looking forward to my own return flight, because he took the ipad with him...he uses it for work...  We spent the morning before his flight wandering around a mall, and then headed out early to make sure we had enough time to get through the unpleasant downtown traffic that I anticipated...Which turned out to be non-existent at that time of the day, go figure.  We were at the airport at least a half hour before we'd planned to be.  So early, in fact, that they didn't even take Daddy's checked bag immediately.  They tagged it, but then he had to put it in another secured area set aside for 'early bags'.  Oh well.  It made it safely home just like he did, one way or another.

And then the Munch and I were on our own.  I'd put off a few friends who really wanted to see me (and of course, who I really wanted to see too!) until this week, since Daddy would have unfairly either been left out completely or become an uncomfortable third wheel amidst all our girl-chatter.  So now I began to call and more concretely schedule time with them, and the week quickly filled up.  But one of the big things that week was not the girl-chatter (though of course there was that a-plenty!)...it was the sibling game nights.  We prettymuch gamed ourselves out, with a slough of night-after-night Munchkin, Clue, Apples to Apples, Settlers, Citadels, and whatever else we happened to be in the mood for that they brought along.  One of the big reasons we had so many of these sibling nights was because I couldn't go anywhere...My grandma's work hours had shifted, so she wasn't home at night as she had been during the past week.  I also wasn't comfortable with inviting friends there.  But siblings?  Of course! :)  And it naturally made sense to spend as much time as we could squeeze out of that last week enjoying each other's company.  Especially since both of my brothers had taken time off of work during portions of my vacation.

My mom was able to join on a couple of evenings--but it was essentially all I got to see of her, with her work schedule and my staying at Grandma's.  I was, and am, very frustrated by it.  She played the part of Munch's Grandma beautifully though, with, among many other things, a gorgeous little toy that just about sent ME into squeals of delight when I saw it:

I'd seen this thing in stores a couple times and WISHED....but had never taken the plunge.  Thank goodness Grandmas don't have to be so practical. ;)  This piano is SO much fun...and it actually has enough different songs and tunes that it doesn't get annoying.  A very good buy, and Munch is still loving it a month later.

My mom also made this sweet hat.  And designed the purple kitty pattern (that you can barely see in the picture) on it herself.  And gave Munch a blanket my Grandma E had crocheted, and a PILE of hand-me-down books, mostly from my younger sister...It all turned into such a hoard of goodies that I very nearly couldn't fit everything into the suitcases when it was time to leave!  I think I had to pack and repack about 5 times the evening before I left, and then again at the airport when one suitcase weighed in at 2 pounds over the limit...And my husband can tell you what a good packer I am on a first try!!

But back to the family time.  Munch did this copy-cat move on her own, with no prompts whatsoever from us.  She LOVES her oldest Uncle.

Munch also very much became enamored with her younger Uncle (who hadn't been quite as sure what to do with her when she was a baby).  Right before this picture, he was copying her moves with this mike and holding it to his ear like a phone...until we chastened him with a 'how do you expect her to learn' comment... ;)  Munch has continued to ask after him over this past month, more so than she does for the rest of my sibs...probably because his name is the easiest for her to say. ;) 

And there they all are...the sort of group shot I expect from my much-loved fam:  A totally different expression and thought crossing each mind as this picture is taken, and each one true to their individuality.  Cracks me up. :)

Those were my evenings for the first half of the week.  Very well spent, I have to say.

The rest of the time was primarily friends...I spent an hour or two Sunday afternoon with the one Seattle friend and her hubby who had come all the way out to our wedding despite not being a part of it.  It had been at least 3 years since I'd last seen her, as she's often gone at Christmas time, so we had a lot of catch-up...which is hard to do in only a couple hours when one has a toddler-sized distraction, but we made the best of it. :) She's a huge animal-lover (she works at a vet office), and has a number of pets--a BIG dog (part great dane), a cockatoo, and two cats.  Now, to put this next picture in perspective:  My grandma has a mid-sized dog, and all week long, if there were pets to be seen at the various peoples' homes, they were all dogs.  All of 'em--big or little, it didn't matter, they were all dogs, and they all share the same unfortunate trait...they're not cats.  This visit was the first house that had cats, and OH, how quickly and ecstatically my little girl remembered cats!!  She got so, so shrieky-thrilled when one of the furry lovelies came out from its hiding place:

It didn't stay out long, understandably...But I was very happy to see them too.  If there's anything this trip reminded me of, it's of how much NOT a dog person I am.  It was heaven just to stroke their sweet kitty fur for a moment or two.

On Tuesday I got together with the same friend who'd picked us up at the airport a week before, and we decided to check out the (shockingly expensive) zoo.  I hadn't been there in years, and it was something on my bucket list, so we happily checked it off together.  It should have been a perfect day for it, too, because the skies were partly cloudy, the temps were in the low-to-mid 70's, and there weren't even that many people there.  But this zoo...it has great exhibits for the animals, but not such great exhibits for the people.  Some of the enclosures are so large or so full of foliage, the animals never have to come out of hiding.  We saw some, of course, and my friend and I certainly enjoyed our time with each other, but I would have been happier if more of the critters had been...well...a little more sociable.

You see how grainy this photo is?  It's because the bird is a long, long, long ways away inside the African Savanna...and there's no jeeps in this savanna to get us closer...

The lovely queen who's not allowed out in the rest of the savanna...

The orangutans have a pretty big exhibit, but they were all hiding out near a pile of rocks that very nearly blocked them from our view.  Clever creatures, these.

All the others were hiding under burlap sack-tents.  Which I thought was kinda amusing, except that I couldn't really enjoy seeing them...

We were very frustrated by some apes next to the orangutans.  We could HEAR them, loud and clear, but we could not SEE them anywhere.  Turned out if we'd walked back to an enclosure we'd passed up (because they weren't doing anything THEN) just before the orangutans, we could have seen them howling away.  As it was, we walked all the way back around, following the arrow on this sign, and by the time we got there, they'd apparently decided howling was overrated. :/  At least we got a funny picture out of it...

This one made me laugh.  That's all we got to see of the sleepy snow leopard.

The one exhibit that was in a constant state of action was the penguin enclosure.  I'm very pleased with how this one turned out--I really expected the penguin to be nothing more than blur, it was moving so fast! ...still need to figure out this new camera...

My friend's favorite by far at the zoo is the jaguar.  She could probably stand there and just watch that kitty for hours like I could watch my tigers...if they'd made themselves available, which they didn't, growl.  This time, though, the jaguar wasn't doing its normal walk-around-the-edges-of-the-enclosure route that it apparently normally takes...instead it was hiding.  Can you see it?  I could.  Just barely, and I snapped the pic of it.  My poor friend was just an inch or two too short...the log in the base of this shot blocked her view entirely.

How glad we were when kitty decided to get up, gnaw a couple branches, and then come right down to snooze by the glass.  That's my friend's reflection in the glass as she drooled (figuratively, ok??) over her beloved wild kitty.

And one more word about this zoo...I remember when they first built a tropical birdhouse there...don't remember how old I was, but I DO remember every time I'd go into that house, the humidity and heat levels it has to be kept at were almost suffocating...and I loved it.  I was definitely looking forward to going in there, because this gal is just not a 70-degree-type gal.  I needed some warm.  As in hot, if you hadn't quite gotten the message. ;)  But what I got was a really weird disappointment.  Yes, I could tell that the temperature was higher, and there was definitely more humidity in the air...but I was still CHILLY.  WHAT?!!?  I guess I've acclimated to Chicago Summers more than I thought I had.  My hubby--Mr. 70 Degrees Or Colder Please--wasn't so thrilled to learn about this...

We also had lunch together at a place called 5-Spot, in Queen Anne.  I HIGHLY recommend their Horchata French Toast.  Just sayin'...if you get the chance, y'know... :)

Wednesday I got together with the friend who originally introduced me to swing dance way back in the day (13 years ago!?!?), and meet her new husband...who, I have to say, and I know she'll read this at some point, strikes me as an amazing, God-sent find. :)  Facebook doesn't exactly keep me updated, and me and phones...well, I'm never as intentional about them as I'd like to be...so we had a lot of catch-up as well, like even just hearing the story about how she and her husband met shortly after my last trip over there, a whole year and a half ago.  *sigh*  But she also introduced me to quinoa, which I now know how to pronounce, and we spent a great deal of time wandering the 'garden' about their home that she is slowly but surely pulling back into the shape it must have been originally intended to be...Morning Glory is beautiful, but, shall we say, unsharing, to other plants...

The last time I was in Seattle, this friend had given Munch a hat that she'd randomly knitted, without a recipient in mind.  This time, she had another hat that she'd intended for herself, but which didn't fit her so well, and DID fit the Munch.  The suggestion is to make this a bit of a tradition. ;)  And Munch was very giving in her hugs...SO sweet.

 

On Thursday, my Aunt C took Munch and I to Bellevue's Botanical Gardens.  It was free, and prettier by far I think than Chicago's...Something about rainy weather and growing plants...?  My Aunt has always been a nature person--she'd take us camping, hiking, skiing, etc, when we were growing up, and she still does when she can--so the Gardens were a perfect place to spend a morning with her. 

 

But before we entered the gardens, we had something else fun to do:  Bubbles!!  We brought them along with us inside, and periodically brought them out whenever Aunt C and I needed to sit for a bit (stroller + hills = hard work).

 

Aunt C loves to read all the different signs we come across, and one such sign pointed out a darling little door that we would have missed completely had we not read it:  A little Gnome House!  We each took turns knocking on the door, but of course no one answered, and Munch quickly bored of the photo-op. ;)

This was a lovely Japanese-style pavilion we enjoyed exploring.  It had a very odd drainpipe:  a chain leading down to a pipe near the base of the house.  It also had a lovely view, both outside and in.

My aunt was very excited about this:  A brand-new suspension bridge crossing a ravine on the grounds.  The thing bounced under our feet, which was a little surreal, but not really frightening...despite the depth of the ravine below.  We knew it was solid.

Only one of the garden areas really had a lot of flowers, but Munch prettymuch ignored all of them, except this flower.  I don't know if it was the bright red that stood out from all the purples and yellows, or if it just had an interesting texture, but she just kept going back to this plant, over and over again, even as we tried to keep going down the path.

For some reason, I love pictures with benches in them.  I've taken quite a few over the years.  Maybe they just seem more restful to me.  They certainly add beauty to a garden path.

 

Thursday was also my first evening out that week, spent with a friend I've known since the awkward days of middle school...I actually have about 3 of those, amazingly, since I didn't actually attend middle school.  But this is the one I hated before she became one of my closest friends.  Middle school will do that to ya.  ;)  We'd planned to just spend a few hours at the nearby Starbucks, then discovered that it was closing at 8:30, and we wouldn't even be getting there until after 7.  Um, no.  She's moving to New Zealand for a year, and I hadn't seen her in at least 3 years--cuz she's a world traveler, seriously, and all her vacations kept hitting on mine.  We needed TIME.  So we went to one of my favorite spots in the world, still:  Edmonds.  Specifically Bracket's Landing, by the ferry docks.  We got there just after sunset, sadly, but it was still glorious all the same.  As was the time spent with her.

I love a sunset over the Olympics.  Love.  It.  I don't know how many sunsets I've watched there.  I don't really care, I'll watch a few more before I'm done.

Ferries, people, cars, and trains all combine in this little town, and make for some interesting pictures.

And then after the sun, there was the MOON.  Rising right above this house.  I tried long and hard to get this shot.  The camera's auto setting either made the moon or the house too bright, and I couldn't quite get the right balance in manual, despite my friend's help.  I still would have loved to have been able to get a little less moon-shiney-ness...but I like this pic all the same.  It's just COOL. :)  And then we went for a walk by my old apartment just a few minutes away, and relived some memories.  And continued to relive those and have some serious, wonderful heart-to-heart conversation as she drove me home.  No wonder I had such a hard time making new friends when I moved...I left behind some amazing women who are not easily matched.  And I'm kicking myself that I didn't get a pic of us...I really do need to update the one that I have sitting in my living room.

Friday was a busy day.  Five different people to visit, in 2 different locations, plus packing (which, as I mentioned before, took a LOT longer than it would normally).  It started with 2 ladies I've known since high-school.  I think they are the first friends I made who were actually older than me by more than a few months, although of course we're still only a couple years apart.  Nearly all the friends I'd made before them were younger.  We met at one's apartment, and she has 2 amazingly luxuriant kitties.  Now, I know cat etiquette...I was raised around cats, after all.  I know they like to make their own rules, that some maybe don't like to get picked up, that some may feel awkward being snuggled by a stranger.  But please remember how cat-starved I was.  I tried to respect their space...but I HAD to bury my nose in both of them. :)  Oh, it felt good.  This particular friend had been putting her friends to work on a special project of hers--something of a friendship bookcase, I guess you could say--so she was of course delighted to have both of us there to add our own flair: 

This is going to be SO pretty when it's done--it's already lovely.  I painted the campsite, complete with blue coolers.  :)  I saw the lake that another friend had painted, and just knew a campsite belonged in the empty space beside it.  It was a shame that we were a bit short on time, though, or I would have painted some campers as well.  There were lots of colors to choose from! :)

Sitting on the green, green porch together with Munch!  There was barely space among all the happily growing things for US, but this shot turned out wonderfully.

And then it was back to grandma's to pack, which I did while Munch napped...mostly.  I was up VERY late that night getting everything finally squeezed in.  When she woke, I headed down to Redmond to visit some people I'd never met--my uncle's son and his family.  It's a painful story on my dad's side--this man and his brother are older than I am by a couple years, so technically, they're the first grandkids in the family.  But by the time I came along, they and their mom were out of the picture.  I didn't even know they existed until I was in my teens.  Then randomly, a couple years back, the older boy found my dad on facebook, reconnected, and then I and a couple others in the family connected as well.  I've gotten to know them a little through facebook since then, and have really been wanting to meet them in person.  Friday, it happened.  I didn't know what to expect, of course, and was nervous driving down to them, but it felt like an instant connection.  They have a baby about a year younger than Munch who has got to be the smiliest baby I have ever met (and working in a busy church nursery like mine, I meet a LOT of babies).  He was CONSTANT laughs and giggles, and so incredibly cute.  My cousin asked if I minded walking 'a couple blocks' up to a Mexican restaurant for dinner.  It's a good thing I enjoy walking...because 'a couple blocks' in his estimation is more like 7-10 in other peoples'!  I think he and my hubby would find a lot in common with each other. :)  And the dinner was YUM.  Best Mexican I've had in a while.



Munch was quite taken with her little cousin, and I think he was equally smitten.  Of course toys held more interest for them both at this stage in their lives (and there were lots of fun toys out!), but they definitely were eager to watch and interact with each other, too.

It was late by the time we got back from the restaurant--well past a Little Someone's bedtime.  I knew if I went back inside that I would want to just stay and stay, and I really couldn't.  So we said our goodbyes on the front steps, and the babies gave high-fives.  And I will definitely be back.  Oh Seattle...I left you, and yet I keep finding more people in you.  What to do?

Saturday was perhaps the lowest of my vacation days--unexpected things and tiredness and having to leave and all.  I was packed and ready to go the night before, which turned out to be a very good thing, as I ended up needing to leave my Grandma's a good two hours before I'd planned to.  I won't go into details, but I was pretty upset about it for quite a while.  Still am a bit actually.  And no, it wasn't Grandma's fault.  I ended up spending those hours well, though, and the timing worked out much better than I could have planned.  I visited a farmer's market in Edmonds; found souvenirs for all the kids I'm watching; was treated to not only a free slice of bread for myself at Great Harvest Bread Co, but also was given a free breadstick for the Munch--so we didn't have to share (!); was exactly on time to return the pack 'n' play and the car; and had just the right amount of time for lunch with my friend and her husband who drove us to the airport.  It probably would not have gone as smoothly if things had gone according to 'my' plan.

Just after a very tasty lunch, we're ready for a long car ride...and Seattle had some air show going on that weekend, so we had no idea what traffic would do.  One thing I knew, it was naptime, but Munch would not be doing any sleeping.

The Space Needle is painted 'gold' on the top to celebrate its 50th year.  It looks 60's orange to me though...and UGLY.

The Blue Angels were flying over the freeway!!  That's a great note to leave Seattle on.

Once in the airport, through another extremely long baggage check line, but a much shorter security line, a TSA worker kindly informed me of an airport play area.  That was a huge relief to me.  It was also a big thing to not have to check the carseat at the gate like we'd had to at the start of our trip.  Both these factors made the airport time SO much easier.

But the plane ride was another story.  It began at 4:20 pm.  My poor Munch was SO tired.  I sat in the aisle seat, and let her play in that tiny walkway as much as I could, and she actually got really good at clearing the space herself whenever someone walked by...but toward the end of it, she just wanted to lay down, and she tried to make a nest with her blanket.  Obviously, not ok.  And just as obviously, she wasn't ok with me telling her so.  She had quite a few meltdowns, poor thing...The flight attendants and the people around us all learned her name pretty quickly.  *sigh*  Eventually she fell asleep in my lap, but then sometime mid-flight, a woman had a seizure on the plane.  When we landed, we had to wait for the emergency personnel to take her off first (she was fine, and wasn't traveling alone) before we could all leave.  And Munch REALLY wanted to leave.  And she and I both were very, very happy to find Daddy waiting for us outside the security gates.  But it was nearly midnight by the time we got home.  Church didn't happen the next day...we woke at 11!!!

There were any number of other things that happened during those couple of weeks...things that I didn't get pictures of, so they're harder to remember...like a friend (my first real guy friend that silly peers teased me about when we were younger, as teenagers will do) and his wife and their 2 little boys that we all met up with on that first Monday we were in town--we'd originally planned for just breakfast at Panera, and then I brazenly invited us to their house for an hour or so to play because the time was just too short, and they were happy to oblige. :)  And the friends I ate with after church on the Sunday after Daddy went home, the only ones I was able to find at the bursting-at-the-seams church I attended in college.  And the new set of suitcases we had to buy because an old one we brought finally broke--but it turned out that there was a half-off luggage sale that very weekend!! And the random grocery shopping excursions with my grandma--who, I discovered, is a bit of an impulse buyer, and wanted to spoil us a little too...she gave Munch her first ice cream cone, and the child really wanted to eat it upside down... And probably a few other things I'm failing to think of right now too.  It was a very, very full couple of weeks!  Just the way I like my vacations. :)  And as always, difficult to stay (weather), and difficult to leave (people).  See-Apple and I have such a love-hate relationship.  Truly, the Chi is home now.  I love it here...although if someone could figure out how to have lots of snow that sticks around in 90 degrees, that would be just a little more perfect... ;)